Targeted

Why there's no meaningful essay this week

For many writers, their Substack is a money-making business. While I very much appreciate paid subscriptions, this whole blog—everything I have printed, past and current—is available free and can be copied and distributed at no charge.

This is not a business under the accounting definition; it falls under the term hobby, an activity with a primary purpose that is not making money. I spent many years struggling to make a good living, and had the Internet and Substack been available 40 years ago I would have built a business with it. But it was not available, and at my age I have no interest in creating a true business. The small amount I earn from those of you who choose to pay for subscriptions adds some very welcome comfort to my small retirement income, but I appreciate all my free subscribers too because they are helping me fulfill my purpose.

That purpose, like my blog itself, is dual:

1. Providing information about Israel, life in Israel, and the Hamas/Hezbollah war;

2. Providing stories and articles for children primarily about Israel and Jewish life, but written to be accessible to all kids.

Two weeks ago I began receiving notices from Meta (owners of Messenger, WhatsApp, and Facebook) that they had “reviewed the Facebook page associated with my WhatsApp account and found potential intellectual property violations in accordance with Facebook’s policies. As a result, we are forced to deactivate your account within the next 24 hours. If you believe this was done in error, you can request a review here: link.”

I assumed these were phishing messages (trying to get my info to sell on the Dark Web).

Let me be very clear: every photo I use is attributed to its source in the caption below the photo on the page with the essay itself, information used in my essays is carefully sourced in the endnotes, and in the year and a half of its publication I have reprinted only two essay, both with permission and attributed to the original authors.

Most of my working life I was a writer or editor, both for corporate and freelance clients. I have had two children’s books printed by commercial publishers (not self- or indy-published), have short stories in several anthologies, and have won several writing and editing prizes. I know what I am doing, and although I am elderly and find I get sick more often and stay ill longer than when I was young and energetic, my mental acumen has not begun to falter. In other words, I have absolutely no clue to what Meta was referring.

But early last week Facebook logged me out of my account, and I was unable to reopen it. Changing the password and even opening a new account failed.

I went back to the messages I had thought were phishing and tried to follow the link provided in the warning messages I had received, but the link did not open. I tried with several browsers at different times of day: nothing.

Then late Friday, as I was checking my messages for the last time before the Sabbath came in, I received (Surprise!) two messages on WhatsApp in Hebrew telling me the same thing: I had 24 hours to tell them why these claims needed to be reviewed. Note that as an Orthodox Jew I do not use the computer, or any other electric or electronic device, for 25 hours once the Sabbath comes in. In other words, Meta sent me a notice, knowing it was going to Israel, at a time when if I was religious it would be 100% impossible for me to meet their demand.

My cold got worse over the Sabbath and I slept most of that day and the next. Monday, though I tried logging into Facebook. Bingo: it opened with the same password that had failed me the previous week. Clearly their blocking was temporary.

The good part of this was that it also meant that they closed my accounts at a time when disruption of my life would be minimal. How do I know they went through with closing the accounts? Tuesday afternoon, as I was waiting for a taxi on the street by my apartment, a tradesman I had called asking for a quote pulled up and asked why I didn’t respond to his message. He had sent it just a few moments before the Sabbath, asking for a reply when the Sabbath ended. I still have not received that message: it clearly had been blocked.

What was this whole thing about?

Someone I never heard of paid for a year’s subscription. Payment went through. Then they cancelled, and the cancellation went through. I can only assume that this person is in the business of making trouble for people who love Israel. Someone, probably this man, apparently filed a report with Facebook that I had broken their rules. Coming from a “subscriber,” such a report would have given it a glaze of legitimacy: it wasn’t just something he had come upon while doomscrolling.

My accounts were blocked. I was greatly inconvenienced. I lost a lot of time and wasted energy that would perhaps have helped me heal from this very drawn-out cold that is keeping my brain too fuzzy to research or to write a concise essay (my apologies for this stream-of-consciousness post). And you do not end up with a meaningful essay for this week.

I have a half-written piece on an educational theory called Developmental Appropriate Practice that I think is partly responsible for the appalling failures in the US education system and the low levels of critical thinking skills in young adults. Next week I hope to post the regularly scheduled children’s Passover story I’ve been working on, but the DAP article will come out after that. I was not planning to publish during the week of Passover, but it might happen. We’ll see how fast my brain fuzz passes.

Until then, wishing you all the best.

Hanna